Research on and through generative AI? An inevitable entanglement

Since the release of ChatGPT to the public, generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has become a primary concern for social researchers. Specifically, GenAI has been considered both an object of study and a potential tool for conducting social research, just as the Internet and digital platforms had been in past decades. Within this framework, this contribution focuses on these two interrelated realms, i.e., “research on GenAI” and “research through GenAI”. Specifically, this paper discusses four areas of interest for the research on GenAI: a. Users’ relationships with GenAI; b. Social narratives around GenAI; c. GenAI production; d. GenAI outputs. Then, how research through GenAI tools can be conducted at the qualitative and quantitative level is critically examined. In this regard, it emerges that GenAI systems are frequently framed as “assistants” and, therefore, research through GenAI emerges more as research “aided” by GenAI than “through” it. Given this scenario, we contend that research through GenAI is inevitably intertwined with research on GenAI and an understanding of GenAI itself.